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2019-06-20

answer › answering member printed

Victoria Atkins

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To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to use the powers in
section 2(1) of the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Act
2019 to amend the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to enable two persons who are not of
the same sex to form a civil partnership in England and Wales.

<p>The Government intends to change the law by regulations to extend civil partnerships
to opposite-sex couples, as required by the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths
(Registration etc) Act 2019, by 31 December 2019.</p>

<p>The Government is committed to protecting people with disabilities in the workplace
and The Equality Act 2010 places obligations on employers with disabled employees,
including the requirement to make reasonable adjustments, which may include granting
leave related to the employee's disability.</p><p> </p><p>However, the Act recognises
the need to strike a balance between the needs of disabled people and those of employers.
What is ‘reasonable’ will be different for each employer because of factors such as
the practicality and the cost of making the adjustment. A court or tribunal may ultimately
make a final decision on whether a particular person meets the definition of disability
in the Act and whether an adjustment request is reasonable.</p><p> </p><p>Practical
advice on reasonable adjustments is available from a number of sources, including
Acas and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC’s examples of reasonable
adjustments for employers include disability leave.</p><p> </p><p>If a disabled person
feels that they have not been treated fairly by an employer, the Equality Advisory
Support Service (EASS) offers information and advice about discrimination, including
disability discrimination. EASS can be contacted by telephone, via an online contact
form or by post.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to
reduce the number of underage people in the North West of England purchasing knifes
from (a) supermarkets, (b) home stores and (c) online.

<p>It is illegal to sell a knife to anyone under 18 in England and Wales and the Government
is tackling the illegal sale to under-18s on a number of fronts. Firstly, as part
of the Serious Violence Strategy, we are enabling Trading Standards to take forward
prosecutions where retailers fail test purchase operations involving sales to under-18s
through a specific prosecution fund. In the North West of England, Liverpool and Preston
are two local authorities receiving this funding. In 2018/19, 1019 face to face test
purchases had been attempted by the local authorities funded across England and Wales,
with 121 sellers (around 13 per cent) failing the test and selling to a person under
18. In the same period, 128 online test purchases had been attempted, with 32% (41)
failing and selling to a person under 18.</p><p>The Government also continues to encourage
police forces to undertake a series of co-ordinated national weeks of action to tackle
knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeted stop and searches,
weapon sweeps of hotspot areas, test purchases of knives from retailers, and educational
events. The latest phase of the operation took place from 11-18 March, and overall
689 test purchase operations were carried out in retail premises. Of these, there
were 559 passes. 130 (around 19%) resulted in the retail outlet failing the test purchase.</p><p>To
go further in preventing the sale of knives to under-18s, the Offensive Weapons Act
2019 includes a provision that will stop knives from being sent to residential addresses
after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the
delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands
of a person under 18.</p><p>The Government has also agreed a set of commitments with
major retailers to prevent the underage sales of knives more generally in their stores
and online. The agreement also covers staff training and displays and packaging. Tesco,
eBay UK, Lidl UK, Amazon UK, Wilko, Argos, Asda, Poundland, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s,
John Lewis and Waitrose have all signed up to the principles. They have since been
joined by Boots, the Co-op, B&amp;Q, Aldi, TKMaxx and Debenhams. We are working with
retailers to strengthen the agreement in relation to displays and that work is continuing.
Following on from this, Asda has stopped selling single knives in its stores from
the end of April, a move supported by the Government.</p>

<p>Our Serious Violence Strategy published in April last year placed a new emphasis
on early intervention and prevention. We support a range of initiatives aimed at reducing
the vulnerability of young people and support schemes such as DIVERT which operates
in London and seeks to prevent young people becoming involved in the criminal justice
system.</p><p>Through our Strategy we are investing over £220m in early intervention
schemes through our Early Intervention Youth Fund and the Youth Endowment Fund which
will provide support for young people at risk of involvement in violence and crime.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime
Minister's oral contribution of 19 June 2019, Official Report, column 241, what the
timescale is for the Government's consultation on strengthening transparency in supply
chains with regards to modern slavery.

<p>On 11 June 2019, the Prime Minister announced at the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) centenary that the Government is looking at ways of strengthening and improving
the transparency statements required of big businesses and expanding the law to cover
the public sector. The Home Office will launch a public consultation ahead of potential
changes to section 54 (transparency in supply chains requirements) of the Modern Slavery
Act 2015. The Government will provide further details on the scope and time frame
of the consultation in its response to the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery
Act, which will be published in summer 2019.</p>

To the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution
of the Parliamentary-Under-Secretary of State for Health of 19 June 2019, Official
Report, column 145WH, what steps his Department has taken since it sent a letter to
the CEOs of 17,000 businesses regarding the audit of compliance with the requirement
to produce modern slavery supply chain statements.

<p>The Home Office has written twice to approximately 17,000 organisations identified
as being required to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement under Section 54 of the Modern
Slavery Act 2015. As a result almost 4,000 organisations have registered to receive
tools and guidance from the Home Office to support effective reporting under the Act.</p><p>The
Home Office is commencing an audit of compliance and organisations which persist in
flouting their obligations risk being publicly named. The Home Office is also developing
a central registry for modern slavery statements published under the Act to enable
the Government to continually monitor compliance.</p>

<p>Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. The Government
is clear that we will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong
suffering to women and girls.</p><p>The Home Office’s FGM unit delivers nationwide
outreach on FGM. The Unit is providing outreach support to local areas and working
to raise awareness of resources available to professionals, including training, best
practice examples and information on legislation and policy. Resources include an
e-learning package, various communication materials such as leaflets and posters highlighting
the legislation and health impacts of FGM, and an online resource pack for local areas.</p><p>We
ran a communications campaign between October 2018 and February 2019 to tackle FGM.
The campaign sought to prevent FGM by changing attitudes among affected communities
through raising awareness of the negative long-term health consequences of FGM. The
campaign also raised awareness that FGM is a crime and encouraged communities to report
via the NSPCC’s FGM helpline. The campaign supported the objectives of the cross-government
Violence Against Women and Girls strategy.</p><p>Earlier this year, the Home Office
trained around 1,300 professionals across the country on FGM and forced marriage protection
orders. The events raised awareness of the scope and effectiveness of the orders,
along with a practical guide to applying, with the aim of encouraging professionals
to always consider them in any safeguarding plans.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is
taking to ensure that more victims of transgender and sexual orientation hate crimes
feel comfortable coming forward to report those crimes.

<p>In October 2018 the Government published Action Against Hate: the Government’s
plan for tackling hate crime – two years on. Two key themes of the action plan are
encouraging reporting and increasing support to victims.</p><p>The Action Plan includes
a number of commitments that are addressing all forms of hate crime, including a review
of hate crime legislation by the Law Commission which commenced earlier this year,
a public awareness campaign which has run twice, and the current Online Harms White
Paper con-sultation.</p><p>There are also a number of specific commitments addressing
homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime, which have been informed by the Government’s
2018 LGBT Action Plan. These include: the Crown Prosecution Service working with partners
to improve the recording and monitoring of equalities data for LGBT victims of hate
crime and reviewing and refreshing its LGBT Hate Crime Schools Pack; further Government
Equalities Office funding for anti-bullying interventions in schools from March 2019
to March 2020; support from the Home Office to the police to improve training in responding
to victims; multiple Home Office funded projects aimed at tackling homophobic, biphobic
and transphobic hate crime; and continued engage-ment with LBGT stakeholders.</p>

<p>In October 2018 the Government published Action Against Hate: the Government’s
plan for tackling hate crime – two years on. Two key themes of the action plan are
encouraging reporting and increasing support to victims.</p><p>The Action Plan includes
a number of commitments that are addressing all forms of hate crime, including a review
of hate crime legislation by the Law Commission which commenced earlier this year,
a public awareness campaign which has run twice, and the current Online Harms White
Paper con-sultation.</p><p>There are also a number of specific commitments addressing
homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime, which have been informed by the Government’s
2018 LGBT Action Plan. These include: the Crown Prosecution Service working with partners
to improve the recording and monitoring of equalities data for LGBT victims of hate
crime and reviewing and refreshing its LGBT Hate Crime Schools Pack; further Government
Equalities Office funding for anti-bullying interventions in schools from March 2019
to March 2020; support from the Home Office to the police to improve training in responding
to victims; multiple Home Office funded projects aimed at tackling homophobic, biphobic
and transphobic hate crime; and continued engage-ment with LBGT stakeholders.</p>